I rejoice that he is come and hath chosen you in the furnace; it is even there where ye and he set tryst; that is an old gate of Christ’s. He keepeth the good old fashion with you, that was in Hosea’s days: ‘Therefore, behold I will allure her, and bring her to the wilderness and speak to her heart’ (Hos. 2:14). There was no talking to her heart while he and she were in the fair and flourishing city and at ease; but only in the cold, hungry, waste wilderness, he allureth her, and whispered in news into her ear there, and said, ‘Thou art mine.’